Laerica
Suum Cuique
Geography, Terrain, and Natural Resources
Laerica is a relatively small, landlocked country. It does not have a great deal of major geographic locales, save for a small mountain range (the Sirens) near the southeast corner and a fairly mighty river, the Erascus, that runs along its northern border.
Statistics
Laerica has an area of roughly 214,000 square miles. Its highest elevation lies at 12,345 feet (at the peak of Mt. Seroyan) and its lowest at -1258 feet in the northwestern Erascus Gorge.
Terrain
Most of the outer edges are taken up with a sprawling, domesticated countryside, but this gives way to marshland to the north and the boreal area of the Blackrock Forest (a temperate coniferous forest that takes up a good 2,000,000 acres) in the southeast.
Natural Resources
·Salt
·Iron
·Natural gas
·Timber
Environment
Being some distance from the equator, Laerica is a moderately temperate country, with relatively warm summers and cool winters. Its major natural hazards include flooding in some parts of the Erascus Gorge, electrical storms nationwide, and blizzards and ice storms in the far southeast. Controversy has recently arisen regarding the pending decision to raise a dam in order to flood the lower Erascus Gorge, to create an irrigation reservoir and provide means to build a hydropower station.
Economy
Laerica has a socialist industrial economy, and thus the vast majority of the nation's capital is regulated and controlled by the governmental system.
GDP:
231,455 ($M)
Per capita:
$17,432 (intl.)
Currency:
Centari
Exchange rate:
One centari = $0.35 (Amer.)
Income tax:
28% for the majority of citizens. However, Laerica imposes an income cap system that prevents any private investor from earning more than $200,000 (Amer.) per year. The government receives any excess as part of the tax.
Unemployment:
9.23%
Government budget:
$2104 billion (Amer.)
Administration: $115 billion
Welfare: $282 billion
Healthcare: $448 billion
Education: $277 billion
Social Services: $221 billion
Military and Defense: $35 billion
Law and Order: $254 billion
Commerce: $173 billion
Environment: $129 billion
Waste: $70 billion
Major exports:
Wool, iron, salt, timber, natural gas
History
Laerica was founded in 1864 by a group of settlers from an unspecified nation. It began as a small town on the banks of the Erascus, but its borders expanded swiftly, following the line of the river before making their way steadily south as the population grew. As the people migrated southward, they encountered a previously-unknown nation of native people called the Haphini, who did not take kindly to the northern Laericans settling on their land. War broke out between the two factions and the Laerican settlers won, albeit with moderate casualties. The Haphini were relegated to the very edges of the Blackrock Forest and eventually vanished altogether. Their treehouse-based villages and architecture are a popular tourist attraction today, although what many people called a massacre was the first black mark in Laerica's history books.
The government as Laericans know it today was founded in 1883 by William Grande, Louis Armerio, and Christian Veid, who sought to unify what then amounted to so many colonies into a great nation. Their constitution was ratified in 1884 and Grande became the nation's first elected prime minister after some dispute and the mysterious death of Veid.
By 1931 Laerica was a thriving capitalist bureaucracy. The assassination of Prime Minister Arnaldo Picare sparked a chain of events that led to a civil war between a formerly guerilla faction of socialist revolutionaries and the stalwart supporters of the old way of being. The socialists won, and the revolution reformed the country into a land of political freedom, social justice, and—let's be honest here—corruption. However, the system formed in the early 30's is still in place today and receives great support from the Laerican citizens.
Laerica disbanded all out-of-state military operations in 1956 following new anti-war-based legislation, and in 1968, it launched its first spacecraft—unusual for a nation of its size. It has remained in a relative state of steadiness of being to the present day, although political turmoil seems imminent.
Military
Laerica has been criticized for its stance as a pacifistic nation. It disbanded its fairly inconsequential army in 1956, having only deployed it in its entirety once before, and then only for a light skirmish near the southern border. The reasoning involved (which, admittedly, does not show the best of foresight) was that its relatively small size meant both that it was not enough of a major world power to go bumbling around into other people's problems and that no one else really cared enough to attack it, and so far, no one has. They retained the ceremonial sections, and of course the federal service and police force. Admission into the federal service is on a purely voluntary basis and anyone is permitted to enlist past their eighteenth birthday. Currently it holds a list of some 12,346 enlisted federal volunteers. The role of these volunteers never extends beyond the border.
Government and Politics
Government: Socialist Republic
Capital: Metrois (other major cities include South Castaria and St. Albane)
Major Provinces: Castar (in the south and west), Solintia (in the north and northeast), Aterise (in the east)
Laerica, at present, is a socialist bureaucracy with heavy liberal tendencies. The elected Prime Minister (currently one Eva Weir) selects a cabinet of six from the respective judicial and congressional systems, who each have a fixed amount of veto power and unlimited input. The judiciary system is unusual in that it can pen laws to pass on to the cabinet for consideration, much like the congressional house. Citizens elect members of both the judicial and congressional systems, as well as the prime minister, but have no votes on individual laws, leaving those to pass through the system separately. There are no major political parties; instead, each candidate is considered as an individual with separate and defined stances.
Civil rights are absolute in that there is no discrimination in any fields (marriage, law, education, etc.) between any factions (race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.). Most people attribute this to Laerica's status as a secular nation that strictly enforces all separation of church and state.
Population and People
Total population: 86.3 million
Population growth rate: 2.4%
Median age: 31
Life expectancy rate: 76 years
Literacy rate: 98.7%
Ethnic distribution: 64% white, 21% black, 15% of asian descent, 6% native, 4% other or unclassified
Religious distribution: unregistered
Language: 78% English,18% Laerican Latin, 4% other
Extra
Important bios: [coming soon]